Fire-box door with draft device.



J. A. SANDY. FIRE BOX DOOR WITH DRAFT DEVIGB.

I APPLIOATION FILED DBO. 13, 1909. 960,71 1 Patented June 7, 1910.

65565 Inozmfiarf 6. gim gazed By ,jzwAifalflzqyir JAMES A. SANDY, OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA.

FIRE-BOX DOOR WITH DRAFT DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed December 13, 1909.

Patented June 7, 1910.

Serial No. 532,763.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMEs A. SANDY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Minneapolis, in the county of I-lennepin and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fire-Box Doors with Draft Devices; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention has for its object to providean improved fire box door and draft device for locomotives, and, to this end, it consists of the novel devices and combinations of devices hereinafter described and defined in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate the invention, like characters indicate like parts throughout the several views.

Referring to the drawings, Figure l is a view in front elevation, with some parts sectioned and some parts broken away, showing the improved door and draft device applied to the fire box of a locomotive; Fig. 2 is a view, partly in plan and partly in horizontal section, on the line of x of Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is a vertical section taken on the line 00 00 of Fig. 1.

The numeral 1 indicates the inner and the numeral 2 the outer sheets of the fire box structure, and the numeral 3 indicates the fuel door opening, which latter is, as is usual, surrounded by a marginal frame 4 riveted to the outer sheet 2.

The door of this improved device is made up of lower and upper sections 5 and 6, respectively, and these door sections are provided with rigidly secured horizontal projecting hinge bars 7 that are pivotally connected by axially alined pins 8 to hinge lugs 9 rigidly secured to the outer sheet 2, at one side of the door opening.

The upper door section 6 is formed with a downwardly and inwardly extended defleeting hood 10 that extends downward to the horizontal plane of the lower edge of said door section 6 and has such inward projection that, when the door is closed, it will extend, preferably, slightly into the fire box proper or, in other words, completely through the door opening 3, as best shown in Fig. 3, and it may be here noted that the hinge lugs 9 are located so far distant from the door opening 3 that, when the door section 6 is turned open to a position at right angle to the sheets 1 and 2, the said hood 10 will stand at one side of the door opening and, hence, out of the way of a shovel used to throw coal into the fire box through the door opening.

The lower door section 5 is provided with a vertically adjustable choke plate or damper 11, which, as shown, is adjustably secured to the said lower door section, by nut-equipped bolts 12 passed through per forations in the said door section 5 and through vertical slots 13 in the said plate 11. This plate 11 is as wide, or wider, than the hood 10 and is adapted to be vertically adjusted so as to variably open the draft passage through the said hood, when both door sections are closed. At its extreme upper edge, said plate is shown as provided with a finger piece in the form of a small outwardly projecting flange 1 1, by means of which the said plate 11 may be raised and lowered when the nut bolts 12 are loosened.

A long latch lever 15 is intermediately pivoted on a stud 16, is rigidly secured to the door sections 5 and projects through a vertical slot 17 in the plate 11. One end, to-wit, the lefthand end of the latch lever 15, as shown in Fig. 1, works inside of a keeper bracket 18 011 the said lower door section 5 and is adapted to engage an outer notch 19 of a latch lug 20 secured to the fixed marginal fran're 1. The other end of said lever 15 is provided with a latch hook 21 that is adapted to engage with a correspondingly formed latch lug 22 secured to the plate 2.

Pivotally connected to the lower portion of the free edge of the upper door section 6, at 23, is a lock piece or lever 24 which, when turned downward at the left, is adapted to engage a notch 26 on the lock lug 20, and thereby lock the upper door section in a closed position while permitting the lower door section to be opened and closed, at will. When it is desired to move the two door sections as a single door, the lock 24 is turned downward at the right, so that its free end engages the outer surface of the adjacent edge of the choke plate 11.

The numeral 27 indicates a lug on the lower door section 5, which limits the downward movement of the lock 24, when the latter is turned to the right.

Ordinarily, the upper door section will be left closed and only the lower door section 5 opened for the purpose of permitting the coal to be shoveled into the fire box. This leaves the deflecting hood 10 in its operative position with the following results :-The cold air, which rushes into the fire box, will, by the hood 10, be deflected downward on to the fire and highly heated before it'can reach the front ends of the flues which are at the rear of the fire box. In this way, the hood acts as a flue protector. The ordinary fire box, which is completely opened when coal is thrown on to the fire, permits a direct draft of cold air high up over the top of the fire and into contact with the rear ends of the flues, thereby causing rapid contraction of the ends of the fines, and this very soon produces leaky flue joints. Also, the draft of air which is downwardly deflected on to the fire by the hood 10 carries the fine dust particles of the coal on to the fire, where they will be rapidly consumed, whereas, in the customary arrangement, the direct current of cold air has a strong tendency to carry the fine coal dust into the fines where it is incompletely consumed and produces sparks which rapidly fill up the front end of the locomotive. Also, when both door sections are closed, which, of course, is during the greater part of the time, the cold air drawn into the fire box through the hood will be deflected downward on to the fire, as above stated, with the result that more complete combustion and, hence, elimination of smoke, is effected. This improvement in the combustion results also in a saving of coal and higher steaming capacity in the locomotive. By vertical adjustments of the choke plate 11, the size of the normal opening or air passage through the deflecting hood 10 may be varied, so as to obtain the best results under varying conditions.

The improved door and draft devicemay be easily applied to any locomotive of standard construction.

The efficiency of the device has been demonstrated in actual and continued usage on a locomotive and tests have demonstrated the truth of the facts above stated.

What I claim is:

1. A fire box door made up of two sections mounted on vertical hinges and located one above the other, the upper section having a deflecting hood extending inward therefrom and an air passage which feeds air beneath said hood, and the lower door section having an adjustable choke plate for varying the size of the air passage beneath said hood.

2. The combination with a fire box, of a door made up of two sections mounted on vertical hinges and located one above the other, the upper section having an inwardly projecting deflecting hood and an air passage which feeds air beneath said hood, and the lower door section having an upwardly extended choke plate arranged to normally close more or less of the air passage beneath said hood.

3. The combination with a fire box, of a door therefor made up of two hinged sections, the upper door section having an intermediately projecting deflecting hood extending downward to the plane of the lower edge thereof and an air passage which feeds air beneath said hood, and the lower door section having a vertically adjustable choke plate extending above the lower portion of said hood and normally closing more or less of the air passage beneath said hood.

4. The combination with a fire box, of a door therefor made up of two hinged sections, a latch lug on the fire box structure, and a latch on each door section engageable with said lock lug to lock both door sections in closed positions, and the latch of one of the door sections being engageable with a part on the other door section to lock the two door sections for common swinging movements.

5. The combination with a fire box, of a door therefor made up of two hinged sections, the upper door section having an inwardly projecting deflecting hood and an air passage which feeds air beneath said hood, and the lower door section having an upwardly projecting choke plate normally closing more or less of the air passage beneath said hood, a lock lug on the fire box structure adjacent to the door, alatch lever on the lower door section engageable with the notch of said lug, to lock the said lower door section in a closed position, and a lock on the upper door section engageable with a notch of said lock lug to lock the upper door section in a closed position and adapted when moved to engage said choke plate and lock the two door sections for common swinging movements.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JAMES A. SANDY.

lVitnesses HARRY D. KILconn, F. D. MERCHANT. 

